ט

May it be Your will, Hashem our G‑d and G‑d of our fathers — G‑d of Avraham, G‑d of Yitzchak, and G‑d of Yaakov — Who chooses the prayer of His servants: that You have mercy upon me and upon all Your people the House of Israel, and grant us merit through Your mighty lovingkindnesses to pray and to plead our prayers and supplications before You in truth and with a whole heart. Teach us what we shall speak; make us understand what we shall ask. And grant me merit to bring forth the words of prayer before You truly in truth — in such a way that the light of truth illuminate for me, to come out from the depths of the darkness and the extraneous thoughts and the klippos that stand over me and surround me at every moment, and in particular at the time of prayer when all of them come upon me and surround me from every side and from every corner with many kinds of encircling and very great confusions beyond measure, value, and number — until I am unable to open my mouth in prayer, and I cannot bring forth even one word of my prayer as it ought to be, from the greatness of the darkness and the extraneous thoughts and the confusions and the hindrances and the screens surrounding me from every side at the time of prayer. And I have no opening of hope or salvation to be saved from them except through true speech — as You revealed to us through Your holy sages: that through true speech You will illuminate for us within the depth of the darkness and the gloom, to emerge from darkness into great light. For You desire truth and You are close to all who call upon You in truth. And therefore I have come to entreat Your face, Hashem my G‑d, and to prostrate myself before You and to spread my palms to You — that You arouse Your true mercies upon me, upon the poor and destitute like me. And pour upon me through Your abundant mercies the light of truth, that I merit to speak before You the words of prayer truly in truth — and may I merit to bring forth all the words of prayer from my mouth in truth, clearly pure and lucid — so that through this the light of truth illuminate for me to find the openings within the great darkness that overpowers us at every moment, which wishes to darken and to hide from us, G‑d forbid, Your great light. And if I have sinned, acted perversely and transgressed before You from my youth until this day, and I have blemished before You very many blemishes, and I have repeated and tripled upon them innumerable times — and at every turn, through each sin and blemish I added upon myself, G‑d forbid, darkness upon darkness, lock upon lock, screens and partitions upon screens and partitions, hindrances upon hindrances, confusions upon confusions — until I have come into the depth of great and very intense darkness, and all the openings that exist there to emerge from darkness to light have been darkened and hidden from my eyes. "I have sunk in the mire of the deep and there is no foothold; I have come into the depths of the waters and the flood has swept over me" [Psalms 69:3].

Upon this have I come before You, Hashem my G‑d and G‑d of my fathers — have compassion, have compassion; have pity, have pity; have mercy, have mercy; save, save. And just as Your mercies and Your mighty lovingkindnesses have prevailed upon us, and You revealed to us this holy counsel — so may Your innards and Your mercies be stirred upon us now, Hashem our G‑d, and help us and save us through Your awesome and wondrous lovingkindnesses that we merit to fulfill this holy counsel — that we merit to bring forth from our mouths words of truth before You in our prayers and supplications and requests, until no darkness or gloom shall have any power to prevent us, G‑d forbid, from our prayer and our service. And through all manner of darkness and gloom that wishes to overpower us at every moment, and in particular at the time of prayer — through all of them may we be able to find the openings through the true speech that we bring forth from our mouths, to emerge through it from gloom to light, from darkness to great light. "For You illuminate my lamp, Hashem; my G‑d brightens my darkness" [Psalms 18:29]. And may the verse be fulfilled: "Hashem is my light and my salvation — of whom shall I be afraid? Hashem is the stronghold of my life — of whom shall I be in dread?" [Psalms 27:1]. For You know, Hashem my G‑d, that I have no other opening of salvation except through this — through Your granting me merit to speak words of truth before You as is fitting. And help me through Your abundant mercies to walk in the path of truth always, and may I merit that no word of falsehood ever come from my mouth; and guard me through Your abundant mercies that no falsehood whatsoever come from my mouth even accidentally, not intentionally — rather, let all my words be words of truth always. And unify my heart toward You — that I merit always to incline my mind and my thought to the truth in its truth, and You shall assist me from Heaven to tread and to walk in the path of truth always, and I shall not turn from the path of truth right or left. "Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are G‑d my salvation; for You I hope all the day" [Psalms 25:5]. "Send Your light and Your truth — they shall lead me; they shall bring me to Your holy mountain and to Your dwelling places" [Psalms 43:3]. "And do not take the word of truth utterly from my mouth, for I have hoped for Your ordinances" [Psalms 119:43]. And may I merit always to pour out my speech and my prayer and my supplication before You truly in truth; and help me that I be able to set forth all my speech before You in truth — and all that is in my heart I shall speak before You, Hashem my G‑d and G‑d of my fathers. For You know our heart — for my needs are very many, and my mind is too short to explain and set forth [my requests]. Even if all the seas were ink and all the reeds were quills — it would be impossible to explain and set forth even the very edge of our very many needs. For we have not yet begun to subdue or nullify even a single evil trait or a single evil desire from ourselves — and we are far from You at the ultimate distance. And yet at every time that we come to set forth our speech before You, our mouth and tongue are stopped, and we are unable to speak even a single word as it ought to be before You. Hashem G‑d — You know our heart, and before You all secrets are revealed. Be gracious to us and answer us, and prepare our heart — and grant us merit through Your abundant mercies to words of truth before You, in such a way that Your great light be opened for us through this, which is the very essence of truth. And may we merit through this to set forth our speech and our supplications before You always in truth as is fitting; and may we merit to bring forth from our mouths in truth all our needs — and everything that is lacking to us in body and soul — all of it we shall be able to set forth and explain before You in the words of our mouth, until we merit to pour out our heart like water before Your face, Hashem, in our prayers and supplications; and Your mercies shall be stirred upon us, and You shall hearken to our cry and heed our supplications, and fill all the desires of our heart for the good with mercy — in such a way that we merit to draw near to You in truth from now and forever, and to do Your will all the days of our lives — we and our offspring and the offspring of Your people the House of Israel. And grant me merit through Your abundant mercies to pray with complete intention as is fitting in truth, with all the powers in me — and may I merit to put all my strength into the letters of the prayer until all my strength be renewed within the prayer, and may I merit to receive fresh holy vitality from the holy prayer — from which all vitality is drawn, as it is said: "A prayer to the living G‑d" [Psalms 42:9]. And grant me merit through Your abundant mercies to complete and true faith.

And so be gracious to us through Your abundant mercies, and help us to raise our prayer before You — through the gate and the tribe [sha'ar v'shevet] belonging to the root of our soul from which we were hewn — so that our prayer ascend through that gate belonging to our prayer heavenward, through the Land of Israel and Jerusalem and the Temple and the Holy of Holies, until our prayer ascend to Your abode on high. And may there be power in our prayer to arouse the supernal mazal [spiritual conduit] belonging to the gate and tribe of each and every one of us, to pour down upon us goodness and blessing — to bless all the fruits of the ground and to make our handiwork succeed. And prepare for us through Your abundant mercies and Your great lovingkindnesses our livelihoods [parnasoseinu] before we need them — in abundance and not in constraint, in what is permitted and not in what is forbidden, in ease and not in distress, in honor and not in shame — from beneath Your wide and full hand. And do not make us dependent upon the gifts of flesh and blood nor upon their loans — in such a way that we merit to do Your will and engage in Your Torah always, day and night; and may we merit through Your abundant mercies to Torah and greatness in one place. And have compassion upon us and help us that our union [zivug] be in great holiness according to Your good will. And help all Your people the House of Israel and all those who have come forth from our loins — all who need to find their zivug [soul-mate] — that You prepare for them their fitting zivug from Heaven; and let the unions not be exchanged, G‑d forbid, through our iniquities — rather, help all the children of Your people Israel, that each and every one find their fitting zivug from Heaven speedily in truth, according to the roots of the souls. And grant us merit through Your abundant mercies to bind all our prayer to the true tzadikim of the generation — who have the power to raise our prayer before You through the gate and the tribe belonging to each and every prayer. Please, Hashem — "are not Your eyes upon faithfulness?" [Jeremiah 5:3] Be gracious to us and grant us merit and help us through Your abundant mercies, and pour down upon us Your holy faith always without a moment's interruption. And grant merit to me and to all Your people the House of Israel to complete and true faith. And may we merit to believe in You and in Your true tzadikim truly always — without any extraneous thought, G‑d forbid, and without any confusion or deviation at all, G‑d forbid. And may I merit to believe in Your holy miracles that You performed with us from eternity — miracles and great wonders; and which You perform with us in every generation until now: supernal miracles and lower miracles [nisim ilayin v'nisim tatayin], revealed miracles and hidden miracles, miracles according to the natural order and miracles that are not according to the natural order, miracles in general and miracles in particular — for each and every individual of Israel at every day and every time and every hour. In all of them may I and all Your people the House of Israel merit to believe in them with complete faith without any blemish or confusion at all, G‑d forbid. And stop and seal the mouth of all speakers of falsehood who wish to implant in the heart and to cover miracles within the garment of nature, G‑d forbid. "Fill their faces with shame and let them seek Your Name, Hashem" [Psalms 83:17]. And help us through Your abundant mercies to be saved from them — that we not agree and not hearken to them at all; rather, give us the power to subdue them and break them and uproot and nullify their evil thought from the world. And for the informers let there be no hope; and all the heretics and the deliberate sinners and the apostates shall perish in an instant. And put in their hearts that they all return and regret their evil and confused thinking, and they all return to You in truth and recognize the power of Your Kingship. O G‑d of faith [El emunah] — help us through Your mighty mercies that we merit to complete and true faith as is fitting. And grant us merit to come to the Land of Israel — the place of our holiness, the source of faith and prayer and miracles, the source of life, the source of the drawing near of Israel to their Father in Heaven, the place of our holiness and our glory, the place of our life and the length of our days. Our Father in Heaven — have compassion upon us as a free gift and a generous act of lovingkindness, and grant us merit through Your mighty lovingkindnesses to ascend speedily to the Land of Israel, and may we merit to serve You there in truth in fear and in love. And hasten to bring us out from the depths of our exile in which we have been exiled from our land these many years, and bring us in peace from the four corners of the earth, and lead us speedily upright to our land. Master of the Universe — You know that the entire length of this exile is only due to the blemish of the weakness of faith — for because of this we were exiled from our land, and we have still not merited to repair the blemish of faith, and because of this this bitter exile has been prolonged upon us until now. Therefore have compassion upon Your people Israel — for there is none to stand up for us, except Your great Name alone which shall stand for us — that You plant and fix Your holy faith in our hearts in truth from now and forever. And remove the crookedness [ikkimus] from our hearts — let no crookedness or challenge arise in our hearts, G‑d forbid, against Your ways. And may we merit to believe always that You are righteous and upright. "For the word of Hashem is upright and all His work is in faithfulness" [Psalms 33:4]. "All Your commandments are faithfulness; falsehood has pursued me — help me" [Psalms 119:86]. Be gracious to us and answer us and grant us merit to complete and true faith always — and through this may we merit to return to our land soon, as it is said: "Come, O bride, you shall look from the peak of Amanah" [Song of Songs 4:8] — speedily in our days, Amen.